The US recently celebrated International Day of Forests, and these nature stamps from the Sheena Douglass A Little Bit Sketchy A Sheltering Tree and Lakeside Shore stamp sets are perfect for creating a beautiful scene. I put together a quick tutorial on how I created the scene, colored it using my Spectrum Aqua markers, and re-purposed a wall hanging from a discount store into a beautiful home decor piece. Be sure to check it out!

I love making my own backgrounds for my projects, and is so easy to do using Spectrum Aqua watercolor markers, an acrylic block, a water spritzer and a stamp or two.

Spectrum Noir has a tutorial on their website for creating backgrounds like these HERE. For this card, I used Spectrum Aqua colors Sunset, Gold and Yellow, following the technique shown in the tutorial for scribbling on the acrylic block, spritzing with water and pressing the cardstock to the block. Then I inked a floral background stamp with Begonia Aqua marker, spritzed it with water and stamped over the background colors. The floral stamp used for the center was a rubber stamp from Rubber Cottage, stamped on Spectrum Aqua watercolor cardstock and colored with Spectrum Noir ColourBlend pencils. Sentiment stamp is from the Crafter’s Companion Sentimentals Phrases stamp set.

The new ColourBlend pencils from Spectrum Noir are Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous! I created a little garden scene using some new stamps I got at the Scrapbook Expo in the Stamps By Judith and Heather booth and colored it with my ColourBlend pencils.

Wowzers, this has been a busy month, and Spectrum Noir’s September challenge is in full swing! The theme this month is “Use Kraft Card”. You can use it anywhere on your project, you can even color on it if you wish (that’s what I did!).

I’ve used my Spectrum Aqua markers to create this fun floral themed card. I inked up the stamps with the Aqua markers and stamped directly on the kraft card. Then I used a paintbrush dipped in water to pull some of the color into the design. The sentiment stamp from Crafter’s Companion fit perfectly with the floral theme.

I just got back from this year’s Scrapbook Expo, and not only did I have a fabulous time, I found some new goodies to play with as well!

I thought these cute stamps from Stamps By Judith would work perfectly with the Spectrum Aqua watercolor markers, and I was very pleased with my first attempt! I inked the stamps directly with the brush tip of the Aqua marker, stamped it on the watercolor cardstock, then used a fine tipped paintbrush lightly dipped in water to blend out the ink slightly for a nice watercolor effect. Can’t wait to play with these some more!